


A question of therapy

by Bluedove



Category: Arrow (TV 2012)
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-03-30
Updated: 2020-03-30
Packaged: 2021-03-01 03:46:42
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,709
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/23398690
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Bluedove/pseuds/Bluedove
Summary: Joanna De La Vega has an uphill battle ahead to lay some truth on her friend, Laurel Lance. Will she be able to reach Laurel?
Comments: 10
Kudos: 13





	A question of therapy

**Author's Note:**

> This is my first fanfiction for Arrow and now that I am in mandatory lockdown, it has compelled me to browse through my google docs and check out some incomplete fic and one-shots I have saved in storage.
> 
> On a rewatch of the first season, I loved Joanna, how straightforward she was. And I wondered how she would have approached Laurel in that time after the Gambit sank, and the fact Sara was on the boat with Oliver as well.
> 
> I just wondered if Laurel had a true female friend at that time. Would she even confide in a friend? I know no women would encourage their friend to stay in a relationship where their significant other makes it a habit of cheating. 
> 
> I mean no disrespect to Laurel Lance as a character. I was always fascinated by her mentality and way of thinking as I know some "laurels" in real life and they are self-righteous to the extreme.
> 
> DISCLAIMER: This goes without saying. I don't own any part of Arrow, if I did, I would have done things differently on the show.

She looked across the booth as her friend kept staring at the news channel. Joanna wanted to help her friend but didn't know how to reach her. She kept her head buried in work and school, dealing with nothing that happened and pretending it didn't. 

“Prominent businessman Robert Queen and his son Oliver lost at sea, along with Sara Lance, the rumoured girlfriend’s sister.”   
It has been a month since the Gambit went down and the news of the ship and the scandal onboard hasn’t let up. 

“Laurel….Laurel stop looking at that. It is not going to help you move forward.” Said Joanna, coffee in hand. She knew her friend will dwell on this to her own detriment but how to broach the topic she wants to, might get her head chewed off. 

“I still can’t believe it, It cannot be true, I know Oliver has been with at least 10 girls while we were dating but he would never go for Sara, he would never cross that line,” Laurel said, her chocolate hair done in a perfect blowout, makeup in place. But not even that, could hide the haunted, angry look in her eyes and the bags under them. 

“Oliver had no lines to cross Laurel, he screwed any skirt in a 50 miles radius in Starling City.’ Said Joanna, rolling her eyes behind her eyes as she was still dumbstruck at how blind and wilfully blind at that, clinging to this notion that Oliver Queen loved her, loved her enough to eventually put a ring on her left-hand ring finger. 

“I knew he cheated, Joanna, I am not naïve enough to believe he was faithful to our bond, but at the end of the day, we did have a bond,” Laurel said.

“Your parents have a bond, right?” Joanna asked, leading her friend to the pond, hoping she might sip from the water of truth and clarity.  
Laurel narrowed her eyes and nodded. 

“What are you getting at Johanna?”

Something inside Joanna told her to tread lightly, this was not going to be easy for Laurel to hear, but she needed to hear it. She needed to get out of this way of thinking that she could have loved Oliver enough to change him.

“Well, your dad dotes on your mom, they still banter and tease each other like they just met. Quentin would never cheat on your mom, not once. You know why? He loves her enough to stay faithful. Hypothetically speaking, if your dad did step out on Dinah, what do you think your mother would have done?” Joanna finished speaking, with her fingers crossed that her point would reach the target.

“That...that is an entirely different situation. Ollie and I are nothing like my parents. Our relationship is different so to compare it to what my parents have is unfair.” Laurel said.

Joanna looked at her friend, wondering how good Ollie’s sex skills were as it looked like he screwed the brains out of her. Taking in a really deep break, Joanna realised that she would have to take out the gloves as Laurel was simply not seeing reason. 

“You are damn right your relationship is nothing like your parents. Quentin loves and respects your mother. And vice versa.” Joanna said.

“Careful Joanna, you are about to cross a line.”

“What line Laurel? The one you arbitrarily draw in the sand when the conversation is not going your way or not what you want to hear. Listen, we know of at least a dozen women Oliver has cheated on you with: let’s list them, shall we? We’ve got Max Fuller’s fiance, wasn’t that at their rehearsal dinner? We have those Russian twins and who knows who else? Tommy’s parties are notorious playgrounds.”

Laurel looked away and then got up from her seat. 

“So I am not saying exactly what you want to hear and you’re going to run. Oliver cheated on you. A lot. With any woman, whether he was high or drunk off his ass. What part of how he treats you ever said: love?”Her voice softened.

Laurel looked at her with a hard, almost hateful look on her face and Joanna knew that whatever Laurel was gearing up to say would not be pleasant.

“Ollie loves me. We’ve been each other’s first and together for years. I am his first love. You never move on from your first love. I know he cheated on me a lot but those other girls mean nothing to him. They knew he was in a committed relationship and just wanted to seduce him.” 

“Do you actually believe what’s coming out of your mouth? Are you actually telling me Ollie has no blame or fault when he cheated on you? He really screwed your brains out didn’t he?” Joanna said as she laughed. She shook her head at the thought of what Laurel was saying. 

“You don’t understand what we have. You are just jealous that I could have been Mrs Oliver Queen and Ollie would’ve grown up and become CEO of QC: we would have been the power couple of Starling City. Like Robert and Moira.” Laurel shouted, her voice wavering and her eyes sparking fire at Joanna. 

“Ahh so you wanted to be the next Robert and Moira? Well, that makes sense as Robert has a notorious wandering dick. Your “marriage” with Ollie would’ve been exactly like his parents: a marriage of convenience and staying together for an image. The main difference here is that Moira is a Dearden. She has more political pull and money than Robert. If Moira wanted to, she could take Robert to the cleaners.”

“How do you know Robert cheats? He wouldn’t cheat on his wife. He might have been a womanizer in his youth but he was faithful when he married Moira.”

“You really believe that? That a wedding ring has some kind of magical powers that inspire loyalty and fidelity? Oh, Laurel honey no. Robert is a cad.” Joanna said, truly baffled at the level of delusion on Laurel’s end. Is that why she tolerated the cheating from Ollie? Was she thinking that if she just stuck it out, and he proposed he would automatically keep his dick in his pants?

“Of course he’s faithful to Moira! He loves her. I have been to many Queen family functions and they have been nothing but a loving married couple.”

“Tell that to Robert’s hand when he touched my cousin’s ass when she applied to be an executive assistant. He literally implied she would get the job if she gave him head.” Joanna said, hating to be blunt but reaching the end of her patience to deal with this kind of willful blindness and stupidity. And her friend Dinah Laurel Lance is not stupid. 

The noise of the coffee shop started to seep into their heavy conversation. Laurel started to shake her head, murmuring no to herself. 

“No, I don’t believe it. Robert wouldn’t do that. Ollie just needed time to grow up and he would have been a good husband. I believe that. I have to believe that.” Laurel said. Her eyes narrowed on Joanna.

“Why would he stop cheating on you? You never made fidelity a requirement to be in a relationship with you. Heck all he needed to do when he was caught, was buy you a piece of expensive jewellery with some empty promises at the side.”

“You’re jealous, aren’t you? That’s why you’re saying all these things.” Laurel started to clap her hands like she figured out where Joanna is coming from all from a place of envy.   
Joanna just sat back in awe. 

“Ollie is rich, handsome and….and...so many other qualities to love. You’ve always been jealous of me. I got invited to the elite parties, Moira Queen herself even nominated me for a chair in one of her charities. And if Ollie wasn't on that Gambit, we would have moved in together.”

“And who was with Ollie on the Gambit Laurel? Was it not your little sister, Sara? Honey, here’s some tough love: Ollie never loved you, he was never in love with you. Because cheating is not the actions of a man in love with a woman. Cheating is not what a man in love would do. Cheating is showing the ultimate lack of respect. The idea that you think I am jealous of that relationship is not only laughable but it turns my stomach.” Joanna said, completely done with the conversation, clearly, Laurel is not willing to listen to reason.

“Tell me, Laurel. Would you forgive Oliver after screwing your sister? I mean we both know he cheated on you but would this case be the one for you to end it?”  
“Ollie loves me and if Sara hadn’t of sed-” Joanna lost her patience and cut off that line of thinking.

“Sara was Oliver’s way to nuke your relationship, Laurel. He was too much of a coward to break up with you and was doing all of this for you to end it. But you never did. You wanted to be Mrs Oliver Queen more than anything. So who did Ollie go after that should be unforgivable: your sister.”  
“You don’t know what you are talking about. Ollie just needed time to realise that I was the love of his life.”

“I say this to you as a friend: get some therapy. It might open your eyes to somethings that you’ve buried your head in the sand to avoid coming to terms with. Because no man can love you if you don’t love yourself first. No man will respect you if you don’t respect yourself. And before you bite back that you don’t need therapy. Think about this: your boyfriend and your sister were having an affair behind your back.” Joanna said, patting Laurel’s back on her way out of the booth. 

Laurel was left sitting alone with her hand wrapped around the now warm coffee with the news channel in the background.

“Billionaire Oliver Queen and father lost at sea, along with Sara Lance. Lance is the sister of the playboy scion’s girlfriend. Stay tuned for relationship experts to weigh in on this scandal.”


End file.
